Friday’s Flavors: Caesar Salad Dressing

Hey, Foodies! Happy Friday!!!

Today I’m sharing with you the number one thing I get asked to make by people who don’t live in my house – once someone tries it, they invariably want it again. And again. And again.

And what is this addictive flavor that people can’t get enough of, you may ask? Surely it involves chocolate, right? Wrong. The number one dish I get asked to contribute to covered dish dinners is my Caesar Salad dressing!

And it isn’t even my recipe, but a variation on one my mom made all the time when I was little! But, it’s easy and delicious, and every time I taste it I fall in love with it all over again!

Note: This dressing is big on flavor!!!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

fresh pepper (about 20 twists or 1 tsp)

1-3 cloves garlic

3 dashes Tabasco

1-2 tbsp. Dijon mustard

3 dashes Worcestershire sauce

1-2 tbsp. red wine or balsamic vinegar (red wine for a milder flavor, balsamic for more bite)

lemon juice to taste (1/4 to 1/2 lemon)

2 hardboiled egg yolks

romaine lettuce

fresh parmesan cheese

croutons

(makes about 3/4 cup dressing)

Preparation:
Add the ingredients as listed above. I usually make this in a measuring cup to facilitate easy pouring afterwards. (I also don’t measure anything when I make this, but have had to crack my own recipe because so many people have asked for it.)

Hard boil 2 eggs.

Add pepper to olive oil. Add crushed garlic. Add tabasco, mustard, Worcestershire, vinegar and lemon juice. (I use balsamic vinegar because it makes for a tangier dressing. My mom always used red wine vinegar, which I believe is the traditional choice. There’s still plenty of flavor with the red wine vinegar.)

Stir with a fork. Add the hard boiled egg yolks. Crush the egg against the side of the glass with the fork. Mix. Keep crushing and mixing until the fork tines stop catching egg chunks.

This makes a nice, thick dressing. My mom used to squeeze a dollop of anchovy paste into the mix, but I stopped doing this years ago and the taste doesn’t seem to suffer – if there’s one thing this dressing has plenty of, it’s flavor!

When I was younger, I used it on everything – steak, chicken, other vegetables (who am I kidding, I still do!).

Mix dressing with romaine lettuce, fresh parmesan, and croutons, or allow each individual to pour dressing on their own salad. You can even chop the leftover egg whites and add them to the salad because this dressing seriously tastes good on everything!

If you try it, please let me know what you think!

Check back next Friday for more Foodie Flavors!